Talk:Balthasar Sinapis
Is he historical or fictional? I've never heard of him, but with only one or two exceptions I can think of off the top of my head, all the prominent foreign characters are historicals, perhaps to make up for the fact that HT doesn't have any historical Atlanteans, no matter how desperately he wants to--except Ambrose Bierce, I guess. Turtle Fan 02:06, December 14, 2009 (UTC) :Brief searches on the internet have yielded no results. That proves nothing in and of itself. TR 15:23, December 14, 2009 (UTC) ::I've found the same. He's Greek, by the way, is he not? They don't seem willing to establish that point even though they keep hinting at it. Turtle Fan 16:46, December 14, 2009 (UTC) :::It's a stupid pun. Sinapis is a type of mustard plant. TR 17:15, December 14, 2009 (UTC) ::::Referring to Balthazar's Mustard? Oh for fuck's sake-- Turtle Fan 17:46, December 14, 2009 (UTC) :::::And Colonel Mustard from Clue. TR 17:50, December 14, 2009 (UTC) ::::::At least he had the decency to try to make it work on multiple levels. ::::::But seriously, why are his puns like this so lame? We know he can do much better. He does in just about all his fantasy works. Turtle Fan 18:55, December 14, 2009 (UTC) :::::::Well, since we had to do some hunting to decipher the meaning, maybe it isn't that dumb. I have to say, I am disappointed that he's not a historical figure who changed his name. HT gave some broad hints about his past, but they could really describe nearly any military veteran of '48. TR 19:44, December 14, 2009 (UTC) ::::::::An obscure pun is not a successful one. If anything a pun whose meaning is well known is the best kind, provided it makes some attempt at cleverness. One whose meaning will be missed by all but people who are familiar with some specific field or other can be fun, but only to the extent that those who are familiar therewith get to pat themselves on the back for being clever. To make that work, it's best to keep the field being invoked somewhat related to your target audience. In this case that would mean marketing this book to botanists. ::::::::So there's to be no more information about this character's past? That's a shame. I like him. I'd like to learn more about him. I find him compelling. ::::::::This book's going to be hard for me to rate. What I like about it, I love, and what I dislike about it I loathe. TGS did nothing but piss me off, and HW left me cold--I had nothing good, bad, nor indifferent to say about it except that it was full of wasted opportunities to tell a story. This book feels like the marriage of a good series with a bad year for HT's novel-writing, really. I'm about halfway through and the goodv outweighs the bad, but I'm not sure how to form such divergent feelings into a single, cohesive opinion. Turtle Fan 20:37, December 14, 2009 (UTC)